2004 – Page 45

Listin Diario highlights that Scotiabank will close this year’s operations with profits of RD$1.8 billion, which is equivalent to 50% of the profits to be generated by all other local banks collectively. Scotiabank benefited from the concession granted (without a tender) of Baninter’s better client portfolio plus 35 of its most profitable branches. Listin Diario, …

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Santo Domingo’s Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez would like to shut down the bars and restaurants that have turned the capital’s Colonial City into a nocturnal hotspot for fun-seekers. The cardinal is particularly displeased with Mankala and Abacus, two bars that lie directly in front of the La Altagracia church. The cardinal says these …

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President Leonel Fernandez will travel next week to Brazil and Mexico. In Brazil, he will participate in the XVIII Summit of the Group of Rio (3-5 November). Subsequently, he will travel to Venezuela to sign the agreements drawn up to oversee the DR’s purchase of Venezuelan petroleum. President Fernandez will sign the agreement with Venezuelan …

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The Fundacion Derecho y Democracia, as represented by a former JCE (Central Electoral Board) judge Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman has submitted to the Supreme Court of Justice a request that the Law on Political Primaries be annulled on the grounds that it violates the Constitution. The JCE has already requested funding for RD$747 million (RD$487 …

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Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque and the country’s leading arbiter Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado issued separate statements requesting employers to respect the salary agreement devised last week by the National Salaries Commission. Both men referred to the agreement between labor unions and employers that prescribed a 30% wage increase in the DR’s legal minimum wage, as well …

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Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque pointed out yesterday that the National Budget will severely limit the President’s ability to implement plans to combat poverty. The special laws that focus parts of the budget on specific areas, such as the Congress (4% of the budget), the municipalities (10% of the budget) and debt service (40% of the budget), …

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The International Monetary Fund mission to the Dominican Republic will depart today after a two-week stay that focused on the conditions necessary to reinstate the Stand By Agreement. Back in Washington, the team will report on the joint efforts that were agreed upon with the DR’s economic cabinet. According to Jose Fajgenbaum, the acting director …

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Twelve of the generators went offline yesterday, initiating a new round of prolonged blackouts for most of the country. All 12 units cited a lack of fuel as the cause of their departure from the grid. While online generation was at 1071 MW, demand at peak hours stood at 1659.9 MW, sending parts of Santo …

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The Ministry of the Interior and Police will begin confiscating, as of tomorrow, the firearms issued under what it is euphemistically calling “friendly” weapons permits. These illegal permits, estimated to number 300,000, were issued by Armed Forces personnel, the National Drug Control Department, the National Department of Investigations or the National Police. Among the holders …

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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will devise strategies, through the National Dialogue forum, that will seek to reduce violence in the Dominican Republic. The Dialogue’s coordinator, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, made the announcement at the end of a meeting with the various media who had promised to assist the National Dialogue in spreading the …

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